Hypothyroidism is at epidemic levels in the United States. Doctors now check for it frequently because it is so common and it may attack in people even as young as 40. It creates lethargy, obesity, foggy thinking, lowered immune defense and may lead what seems like unrelated cancer.

About 70 years ago goiter was a significant problem in the United States but never to the level that hypothyroidism is today. In the 1950ís the government encouraged industry to add iodine to bread. When they did the nation saw a decrease in goiter. It all but disappeared and it seemed like people were on the road to better thyroid health.

Then the government got the idea to take iodine out of bread and to put it into salt instead. Thatís when bread makers started to add bromide to bread as a softening agent. Bromide is a halogen element that is not required for any metabolic use. You might as well eat wood. If the bread companies put sawdust into you bread you might even get better nutritional value.

Bromide is a toxin that can bind to the same receptor sites that iodine does. With daily insufficient iodine, bromide will be sitting in those receptor sites in your thyroid. Fluoride and chlorine could also be sitting in the same receptor sites. Most of us drink and shower in fluoridated or chlorinated water. These chemicals will not promote health.

Bromide, fluoride, chlorine and iodine are halogens and are structured similarly. They all fit into the iodine receptor sites found in the thyroid, the pineal gland of the brain, breast tissue and prostate tissue.

If you are hypothyroid or hyperthyroid it may be due to low stomach acid and you are at higher risk for hypothyroidism if you are on a proton pump inhibitor like pepcid or prevacid.

Tyrosine is a building block of thyroid hormone. Tyrosine is made from phenylalanine which comes from chemical reactions in the stomach. If there isn't enough thyroid hormone it may be caused by inadequate digestive function involving pepsin. With insufficient pepsin to split peptide bonds then phenylalanine doesn't sufficiently get joined to other amino acids to form tyrosine. Insufficient tyrosine causes insufficient thyroid hormone.

Iodine is utilized though a specific process within the stomach. The enzyme pepsin in the stomach is the result of the conversion of zygomen pespsinogen by hydrochloric acid. If HCL is low then insufficient pepsin results which causes poor conversion of phenyalalanine which results in insufficient tyrosine. Tyrosine when bonded with iodine becomes moniodothyroine which convert to diodothyronine which converts to triodothyroxine which convert to tetraiodothyroxine which is commonly known as thyroxine, the thyroid hormone.

When stomach function is poor you will have thyroid problems, if initially only sub-clinical. When consumption of iodine is insufficient you will not form enough tyrosine to keep you and your thyroid healthy.

In our culture today you are attacked on two different levels to cause thyroid disease. The first and maybe the most important is insufficient consumption of iodine.

The second is the assault on our digestive capabilities by the pharmaceutical companies and their minions, the doctors, who push antacid pills. These are dangerous medicines that will shorten your life.

So get the picture if you can. Letís say youíre a 24 year old female and you eat white bread and pastries with bromide in it. You also soak in the bromide-purified hot tub. Bromide is absorbed or ingested and bonds to iodine receptor sites in the thyroid and all though your body, including breast tissue where iodine should be residing. Your bromide ingestion far exceeds your iodine ingestion and absorption and iodine can barely compete for the iodine receptor sites.

Because you are stressed with work you have a little acid reflux and have been taking antacid pills on and off for 2 years. You eat iodized salt on occasion but no one explained to you why it is more important than plain salt.

You have a lot of breast tenderness and fibrocystic lumps since high school and the doctors says not to worry and she tells you to stop drinking caffeine as they promote them. She wants you to have mammograms at least every 3 years or if the lumps get worse.

Fibrocystic breast disease is associated with an increased risk for breast cancer and lets face it, x-rays can promote if not cause cancer. It is a known fact.

See what I am saying? This gal is heading for trouble and neither she nor her doctor has a clue. Much could be avoided with proper diet and the promotion of good stomach health. This gal needs to run from her doctor and find some good guidance.

The answer lies in iodine supplementation and learning how to care for your stomach. Everything you need for good health must first pass the fires of the stomach. If things are not done right in the stomach and the intestines your in danger. You may get hypothyroidism, maybe even cancer.